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Updated: May 12, 2025
As I have said, certain poems are signed with Cynewulf's name; and there are others which are with more or less probability of rightness attributed to him on grounds of likeness of subject, likeness of style, similar greatness of treatment. About Cynewulf himself we know, I may say, nothing except what we gather from his work.
One more reason he suggests, and that is "the all-pervading and unspeakable sweetness of Christ's teaching by parables." The Romans used the representation of the phoenix on coins to signify the desire for fresh life and vigour, and Christian writers used the phoenix as an emblem of the Resurrection. Many scholars think that it was Cynewulf who wrote the Anglo-Saxon poem of "The Phoenix."
Cynewulf closes the Christ with almost as beautiful a conception of Paradise as Dante's or Milton's, a conception that could never have occurred to a poet of the warlike Saxon race before the introduction of Christianity: "...Hunger is not there nor thirst, Sleep nor heavy sickness, nor the scorching of the Sun; Neither cold nor care."
It is too terribly satiric and destructive; it emphasizes the faults and failings of humanity; and so runs counter to the general course of our literature, which from Cynewulf to Tennyson follows the Ideal, as Merlin followed the Gleam, and is not satisfied till the hidden beauty of man's soul and the divine purpose of his struggle are manifest.
Cynewulf is also the probable author of the Phoenix, which is in part an adaptation of an old Latin poem. The Phoenix is the only Saxon poem that gives us the rich scenery of the South, in place of the stern northern landscape. He thus describes the land where this fabulous bird dwells:
Offa, the great and fierce king of Mercia, defeated Cynewulf of Wessex, at Bensington, and spoiled the land, destroying the convent of St. Helena, founded by Cilla, and grievously robbing and oppressing Abingdon.
He appears, at any rate, to have been an educated man, and I think no one can read his poetry without feeling that he was a man of deep and fervent piety. There are four poems signed by Cynewulf, and these are named "Christ," "Juliana," "The Fates of the Apostles," and "Elene." Certain "Riddles" have also been attributed to him.
The later poet may have had the earlier in mind, and may not have been unwilling to enter into generous rivalry with him; but there is this notable difference, Caedmon does not relate his own dream, while Cynewulf, if it be Cynewulf, does."* * Ibid., p. lvii.
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